This invention relates generally to network access to for IT expert referral. More particularly the present invention provides a system and method for obtaining assistance via network notification to information technology (IT) experts and subsequent IT expert-to-customer contact.
As computers and software proliferate, the need for help desk assistance becomes more and more critical especially to those customers who are not technically sophisticated. The difficulty is that individual customers become frustrated when they must sit on a help line for many hours before they get human assistance or, equally frustrating, are shunted to a frequently asked question screen, which has the answers to many questions that are not helpful for the particular problem that the individual customer is experiencing.
The present invention seeks to solve these problems by qualifying and establishing a large number of IT experts in various hardware and software fields. For example, the present invention will solicit and store qualifications for IT experts in Microsoft Windows, Sun products, Apple products, and indeed, many other hardware and software products. These IT expert, most of whom will be independent contractors (although not necessarily so), will be directly accessible via the database of the present invention.
After registration with the system of the present invention and providing customer contact information such as telephone number and email, when a customer needs particular assistance with a particular product, the customer will access the website of the present invention and state the problem being experienced. Once a query for help is made, the system of the present invention sends a pager or other notification signal to an appropriate IT expert who can handle the problem being experienced by the customer. Indeed, a call may go out to multiple IT experts all of whom have the option to respond to the particular request. Contact information is also presented to the IT experts in this first communication.
Whichever IT expert responds first to the request, that IT expert will have the contact information to immediately contact the customer experiencing the problem. In this fashion, one of the key problem areas, that is time of responding to a problem, is minimized.
The IT expert can then respond either via email through the server of the present invention to the customer or via internet telephone through the server of the present invention to the customer. In either case response goes through the server of the present invention in order to be able to track such statistics as response time, and whether the customer was satisfied or dissatisfied with the response of the particular IT expert.
Once the problem is solved, the customer who experienced the problem is given the option of responding to a questionnaire simply asking if the problem was solved, if the IT expert was responsive to the question, and several other key questions that will assist the system of the present invention in evaluating the performance of the IT expert.
Statistics will be kept on the performance of IT experts involved in the system. For those IT experts who continually rank highly, calls for assistance will continue to go to those IT experts on a priority basis. For those IT experts who are not as successful, they will fall lower in the priority list and will not receive as many calls for assistance from the system.
A key aspect of the present invention is that the system is adaptive. If an Expert who is lower on the priority list continues to get high grades from customers for accomplishing tasks, that Expert can climb in the rankings and achieve a priority ranking thereby receiving more request for assistance and hence, more revenue from responding to customers needs. Conversely, those IT experts who do not receive favorable rankings from customers will fall in the overall rankings of IT experts and will not receive as many phone calls for assistance an hence, will not receive as much revenue from the present invention.
All transactions, in the preferred embodiment occur via the Internet, although this not meant as a limitation, whether they be by email, or Internet telephone. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that communication between customer and Expert can also occur via telephone as well. And all transactions will proceed through the server of the present invention so that activities of IT experts and statistics on types and frequencies of certain troubled calls can be monitored.
In summary what is created is a virtual help desk, having IT experts in many different areas of IT expertise immediately and competently responding to the queries for help from customers who are in need.